The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent Russia a note of protest over the dispatch of humanitarian aid to Donbass, accusing Russia of violating the country’s sovereignty, the ministry’s press service reported on Thursday, July 30.
According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the delivery of the humanitarian cargo is “illegal” because it was carried through the border checkpoints Izvarino and Uspenka, which are not controlled by Kiev. The department demanded “to stop committing internationally wrongful acts against the sovereignty of the state.”
Humanitarian aid has been delivered to the residents of Donbass since August 2014. During this period, 97 convoys of the Ministry of Emergency Situations brought more than 84 thousand tons of humanitarian cargo to the territory of southeastern Ukraine. Another EMERCOM convoy arrived on Thursday.
On the same day, Aleksey Zaitsev, deputy official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that the ceasefire regime between Donbass and Kiev is generally observed.
Earlier, on July 27, the commander of the United Forces of Ukraine, Volodymyr Kravchenko, announced that the militia had violated the ceasefire on the very first day of the entry into force of additional measures to ensure the ceasefire.
On July 22, at the talks of the contact group on Donbass in the Minsk format, the parties agreed on additional measures to “support and comply with the current indefinite ceasefire for the entire period until a complete comprehensive settlement of the conflict”, which entered into force on July 27.
The Ukrainian headquarters of the Joint Forces operation also announced that it has taken measures to achieve a ceasefire in the Donbas. The observance of the ceasefire at all military posts will be monitored by specially seconded servicemen who performed similar tasks in peacekeeping missions under the auspices of the UN.
Since 2014, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against Donbass, whose residents refused to recognize the results of the coup and the new government in Kiev. The settlement issues are being discussed in the Minsk format and at the meetings of the Normandy Four – Germany, Russia, France and Ukraine.